Clockwork pandora heart.., p.5
Clockwork Pandora (Heart of Bronze Book 2), page 5
I shook my head again. “N-No, master. No.”
“What if I ordered him to use your mouth like the lips of a French whore? Hm? What then?”
My lower lip curled in as bile rose in my throat. I was terrified to say anything. Honesty would bring wrath, and a lie would bring humiliation. I chose the middle ground and only remained on my knees, easing back on my haunches as I held my hands clasped over my heart. Tears begging mercy filled my eyes.
The Scorpion’s slender fingers combed back a shock of blond hair as he regarded me, then looked to Roach. “Roach,” The Scorpion barked.
The redhead looked at him.
“On your knees.”
Roach’s eyes widened. His greasy smirk turned to a nervous smile as he read the captain’s words as a joke.
“That’s an order,” he said blandly.
I had no idea what The Scorpion did aboard his airship when his men refused to follow orders, but whatever it was it must be dire indeed. Roach immediately dropped to his knees with a thump that mimicked mine from a moment ago. Will started to grin wickedly as he watched from behind his captain.
The Scorpion settled his hands on the snaps below his belt and began to unfasten his trousers. The look of fear that flashed Roach’s face rivaled my own. He looked pleadingly up at his captain, shaking his head.
“Open your mouth, Roach.”
“P-Please, c-captain, I—”
“That too is an order.”
When the man before him whimpered and shook his head more vehemently, The Scorpion added, “Comply with my order, or I’ll have Scribbler and Will force you to do my bidding, and then I’ll kill you.”
“C-Captain.”
The Scorpion shouted “Open!” causing both myself and Will to start. Will pressed a hand to his chest to catch his breath.
I looked away as Roach slowly opened his trembling mouth.
“Good,” the captain grinned and sighed. “Now I’m going to do to you what I would love to do with a French whore.”
I heard Roach whimper.
“Close your eyes, darling.”
I glanced up and watched as The Scorpion reached back toward Will and wagged his fingers in a beckoning gesture. Will drew and handed his pistol to the captain, who then quickly brought it around, pushed it into Roach’s mouth and pulled the trigger. A wave of long red hair, made dark and wet with blood, splashed back from the man’s skull as the loud report rang in my ears. I fell back off my knees, my chest rising with rapid gasps.
The Scorpion sneered ae emotion for all that just transpired. As the caps Roach’s corpse collapsed to the floor, “I hate French whores.” He handed the pistol back to Will who took it and holstered it without showing ontain re-buttoned his trousers, he looked at me but spoke to Will. “No one touches the old man, is that clear?”
“As always, Cap.”
“And no one steals from him either.”
Will frowned, but then quickly nodded. “Yessuh.”
The Scorpion motioned to the door. “Out.”
Will quickly moved around his captain and stepped over his friend’s corpse.
When we were alone, The Scorpion looked at me. “It’s been a trying day for you, Scribbler.” He motioned weakly toward the table. “That’s a really shitty haul.” Then he looked down at Roach. “I’ll let it go today, but I’ll be back tomorrow night, hm?”
I nodded. “Y-Yes. Thank you, sir. Thank you.”
He turned to leave, but paused at the threshold. He motioned to the corpse. “You can get rid of that and clean up the place before I return, right?”
I nodded as the young pirate king looked at me. The lantern light flickered in his cold gaze, turning his blue eyes into embers.
He said, “Good.”
Then he was gone.
Chapter 6, Passengers
“Wilco Rink was ‘is name,” Maggie said, studying Pandora with the caution of someone charged to feed a venomous snake at the zoo.
Kevin stood in the center of the beaten path, squinting in the direction of the fallen Mystic Lady. Pandora sat on a felled tree at the edge of the woods with Maggie nearby, staring down at her. Maggie said, “My friend Alice, she ‘ad me call ‘im.”
At the mention of her father’s name, a lump caught in Pandora’s throat. She blinked several times to fight off the burn that rimmed her eyes and folded her arms to lock in her thudding heart. She nodded slightly, staring at an ant crawling on the log next to her.
“’E was yer da after all then?”
The witch barely nodded. She squinted up toward Kevin, but kept her voice close to Maggie. “We got muscled up in this mess with Thorne & Wolfe, and this whole Atlantis thing—all over Bryce’s girlfriend.” She sneered at nothing in particular, “She’s the one you call Alice, and if she was here with you, and my papa was here to rescue her…” Pandora trailed off, her eyes locked on some distant daydream as she imagined letting Teivel Hearse have his damned Atlantis so she could magic out to save her father. “Yeah… Explains why I ended up with you two.”
Maggie eyed Pandora’s profile. She certainly wasn’t like any witch she’d ever heard of—not that she’d heard of many. The deep sadness in Pandora’s dark eyes was so human it pulled at her heart.
She leaned closer as she said, “Yer da’ died a hero, love.”
Pandora glared at her.
Maggie quickly added, “He was tryin’ t’ save us. ‘is plane was about t’ dock when the black wings attacked ‘im—attacked us all.” She glanced to her husband, then back to the witch. “Can I ask ya sometin’, Pandora?”
The witch remained still, so Maggie drew a breath even as her hand slid over her own belly. “Could Alice have blessed me—?”
“Hey!”
They both turned toward Kevin’s shout. He pointed skyward. “Airship!”
Pandora rose and joined Maggie next to Kevin. Maggie shaded her eyes with her hand. Pandora clenched her fist, then a long telescoping spyglass of brass and worn leather appeared in her hand. She raised it to get a better look, and made a low noise in her throat. “It’s Imperial.”
“Not good,” Kevin muttered, squinting. From his perspective he only saw a squat dark sausage slowly descending toward the Mystic Lady’s grave.
“Yeah,” Pandora growled, stretching out the word as she rotated the focus tube of the spyglass. “Circle Stars flyin’ off her gondola.”
“Not good,” Kevin repeated. Maggie looked up at him.
Pandora lowered the spyglass and handed it to Kevin. Maggie snatched it out of her hand and raised it to her own eye. Kevin looked at Pandora and said, “What?”
“They’re pirate hunters. They’re flyin’ the red flag ‘neath them stars.”
“Tha’s bad?” Maggie asked as she tried to make out the ship through the spyglass.
Kevin watched Pandora closely. He saw fear in the woman’s eyes, fear mixed with loss. He said in a low voice, “They won’t take to witches very kindly, will they?” Maggie lowered the spyglass and looked to her husband, then to Pandora.
“Nah.”
Kevin’s voice was low. “We were heading to Chicago. No better ride than on an Imperial ship.”
Pandora nodded. Her eyes remained locked on the descending smudge to the east. “Yeah.”
“We don’t has to tell ‘em what you are,” Maggie offered.
Pandora shook her head. “Nah. It’s best I keep away from Imps. Far away.”
Kevin offered her a consoling look. “I’m sorry about your father, Pandora. And I’m sorry people like us judge you so quickly.”
Pandora broke her gaze from the horizon to look at the pair. She smiled a wide, toothy grin and laughed. “Yeah. It’s yer fault yer ignorant.” She shrugged as her smile slowly faded, “But now ya know.” She turned and started walking west, away from the descending airship and the Tarnishes.
Maggie called out, “Wait! Where ya goin’?”
“As far away from Imps and magic as possible. All the way to the broken coast if I have to.”
Kevin tugged at his wife’s arm. “Let’s go before they land and take off again.”
Maggie tugged back and took a step toward Pandora. “But I dinna ask ‘er if—”
In a flash, and a dull thud that came like a muffled clap of thunder, Pandora vanished. The world twisted and warped around Kevin and Maggie as they felt themselves corkscrew into the air. The blue sky and green grass spiraled, spun, and blended into a turquoise pattern of splotches. They saw stars, darkness, the moon flip past between a dusk and dawn that toppled over each other in a pair of heartbeats. Their ears popped and their hearts dropped out of their chests.
Kevin stumbled forward and grunted. Maggie plopped down into the tall weeds next to him before quickly scrambling to her feet. The air was suddenly buzzing with the idling fans of an airship that squatted in the massive uneven field that was the grave of the Mystic Lady. Kevin blinked and looked around at the cluster of trees behind them, then to the pair of men poking through the downed airship’s wreckage with large burlap bags over their shoulders and prodding claw-grippers in their hands. Smoldering wreckage was all around them; burning wood, twisted iron, bent brass and torn canvas.
Maggie’s eyes widened as her brain raced to catch up with what her senses were taking in. The air felt different, her skin buzzed. Once she realized they were at the wreck of the Mystic Lady, she knew Pandora must have spirited them here.
Kevin squinted at the parked airship and read Compassion painted along her side in black script against a Imperial blue canvas.
“Kevin!” Maggie shouted as she stumbled and clutched his arm, slowly reorienting herself to the new day, time, and location. She reached into the food bag, which now seemed empty, and pulled out a crumpled scrap of paper. “Kev, look.” She held it out to him.
He took the note and read five hastily scrawled words, then smiled as he shook his head, gazing up at the airship once more.
“She done dropped us ‘ere,” Maggie said, shaking the dizziness from her head, “To where we was ‘eadin’.”
Kevin raised a hand as someone on the gangway of the Compassion looked in his direction. He said, “Question is, did she put us here to help us, or to put us in harm’s way? These are Imperials in Confederate territory, Mags.”
“She seemed a good sart, all done n’ done, Kev. And sad.” Maggie took a shaky step toward the Imperial airship, then stopped as she saw one of the men working the wreckage draw a pistol.
“Let’s pray for Pandora, Mags,” He muttered as he crumpled up the note and tossed it into the grass behind them. He started marching toward the airship with his hands raised. “And let’s not mention her to these gentlemen.”
“No, but…” Maggie fell into step next to him. “Wha’ did it say? I dinna read it.”
Kevin smiled. “It said, ‘I put it all back’.”
“Oh.” She glanced up at her husband. “Wha’s so funny, then?”
“The only words she spelled right were ‘I’ and ‘it’.” Kevin raised his hand to wave at the first person stepping down the gangplank of the airship. He was very tall and dressed very smartly in a long Imperial blue coat with shining brass buttons.
The man raised a white gloved hand to wave back.
~~~ ~~~ ~~~
Gabriel Joseph pulled his Imperial shell jacket over his gusseted shirt as he hurried down the gangplank behind his captain. Brody the cook stayed at the opening to the hatch with his Remington tucked under an arm.
“Captain,” Gabe called out, “I know you is a stickler for protocol and all, so why’re you runnin’ out to meet pirates unarmed?”
Kinney smirked, giving his mustache a mirthful twitch. “Because I knew you’d be right behind me with a gun, so I don’t have anything to worry about.” The captain waved at the couple who were making their way toward the Compassion as Gabe turned to Brody and held his hands out, palms up. Brody rolled his eyes and tossed the Remington down to the pilot. Gabe caught the rifle and turned to join his captain, who was already approaching the strangers.
“Hello there!” Kinney called out.
The lanky man approaching them looked worn and tattered, but he was unarmed and didn’t seem the pirate type. The girl in tow beside him did look like a pirate’s whore, especially with the cat whisker tattoo on her cheek. Pirates often marked their women like that, a mockery of the established legal Property system. Kinney held up a hand to stop them as soon as they were just shy of shouting distance. “Hold on now. Suppose you tell me what you’re doing out here at the wreck of a known pirate ship.”
Gabe stepped up next to his captain and held the rifle pointed down toward the lanky man’s feet.
The man pressed a long-fingered hand to his chest and bowed in a gentlemanly manner. “I am Doctor Kevin Tarnish of the Tarnish Traveling Road Show, and this is my wife—”
The woman stepped forward and curtsied. “Magdelene Riggsby Tarnish, Cap’n.”
Kinney raised an eyebrow to the woman, beaming as his ears caught her thick brogue. “Great Scott, a Scot.”
“Barn and bred,” she smiled, then blinked up at the broadsides of the Compassion. “Yar ship’s a fair one.”
The captain touched the bill of his cap and bowed, his eyes twinkling at her compliment. The man who identified himself as a doctor, said, “I’ll tell you how we got to where we are if you do the same, officer.”
Gabe raised the rifle. “Now hold on—”
Kinney put his hand on the Remington and shot Gabe an impatient glare. “Now, now, Gabriel, it’s a fair question. After all, we are armed Imperials far over the line, and the doctor and his lovely Scottish wife here are a bit out of place as well. Now, we can stand here and play at mind cards all day, or we can clear the air in a matter of seconds before moving on, yes?”
Maggie gazed at him and nodded her chin sharply even as Kevin and Gabe exchanged glares.
Kinney said, “I’m Captain Richard Kinney of the Pirate Hunter Compassion. This here is my pilot and first officer, Gabriel Joseph.” He waved his hand over his shoulder toward the broadside of the airship which thrummed low as her engines idled behind him. “The red flag there indicates that we are free to hunt criminals of both our nations, though I may be presumptuous on one count, doctor, as your accent has a decidedly northern bent, and your lovely young wife is from across the Atlantic.”
“We’re from Chicago,” Kevin said flatly, the suspicion not leaving his shifting gaze. “Originally… Only came down Shreveport way to do some business and trade.” He patted his vest pocket, then his pants. “I have papers somewhere—”
Kinney held up a hand. “Not our business, Dr. Tarnish. We’re pirate hunters, nothing more.”
Maggie echoed as she squinted one eye “Pirate oonters.”
Gabe said, “Where’d you come from?”
Kevin pointed to the smoldering wreckage nearby, close enough that they could still feel the heat of what was left of the Mystic Lady. “We ‘chuted out of her before she went down… Made our way here to see what we could recover of our belongings before trying to make our way across the border north.”
“What was the ship?” Gabe asked.
“Mystic Lady,” Maggie said, her eyes still locked with Captain Kinney’s.
Gabe nudged his captain. “We were right.”
Kinney blinked and wuffled his mustache before nodding. “So, you are pirates then.”
Kevin said, “No, we—” but Gabe brought the Remington to bear on the doctor’s chest and said, “You’re under arrest under the confines of Article K of—”
Kevin raised his hands to surrender. “But we—”
Kinney stepped closer, still smiling at Maggie despite the message in his next words. “My Number One is correct. I regret to inform you that you are our prisoners until such time as you can be remanded over to the Imperial Magistrate, though I also regret to inform you that the sentence for piracy is death in the Empire.”
“But we’re not—”
Kinney’s smile broke as he turned an eye to Kevin. “I would suggest you exercise your right to remain silent, scalawag, or we’ll have to keep you chained in the coal room.”
Maggie clutched Kevin’s arm as Kinney stepped aside and motioned for them to head toward the Compassion. Maggie said, “We’re not pirates, Cap’n Kinney. We was snatched out ‘the blue an’ held ‘til we escaped.”
Gabe said, “Tell it to the Magistrate.” He stepped aside but kept the Remington pointed at Kevin.
Kinney formed a hook of his arm to escort Maggie aboard. “It’s easy enough to confirm your story, Ms. Tarnish, but I strongly suggest we work toward that goal once we’re airborne. I’d hate to risk Confederate Overwatchers gunning us cold before they’ve identified us.”
Kevin pointed out, “You said you had rights here.”
Kinney grinned over his shoulder as Maggie took his offered arm, reaching back with her other hand for Kevin to join them. “This may be true, doctor, but that tiny red flag isn’t easy to make from a distance, and our ship is a rather striking Imperial blue, yes?”
Lawrence Toller stood at the top of the gangplank. He looked at Brody and waved his hand down toward the captain, a gesture of exasperation that screamed, See!? Brody only shook his head and moved down to join the scavengers in the wreckage.
Kevin followed them toward the gangplank with Gabe taking up the rear. He looked over toward the wreckage of the Mystic Lady and watched as two of the Compassion’s crew picked through the wreck with long hooked poles. He asked, “Your men find any bodies? A woman, perhaps?”
Maggie gasped and looked toward the wreck as if just remembering Alice.
Gabe muttered, “No woman,” and prodded Kevin’s back with the rifle. “Move.”
Kinney patted Maggie’s hand and said, “Never fear, my dear lady du lac. I’m sure we’ll have this all cleared up in no time. Chef Brody broils a delightful cod. Would you care to join me for dinner?”
Kevin blurted, “Yes. We would.” He moved up to take Maggie by the other arm as they stepped up the gangplank.
